NEWS

SoundCloud may actually start paying musicians

After upgrading their iPhone app recently, music-streaming platform SoundCloud is considering ways to monetize its content and actually generate money for some of its artists. The service attracts 250 million listeners a month and has become a staple for sharing music among artists in this scene.

SoundCloud co-founder and chief technology officer Eric Wahlforss tells the Guardian, "Right now in the U.S. we're experimenting with different monetization approaches. We're throwing a couple of things out there and testing the waters a bit. We're super-excited about where this stuff can go.” Read an excerpt from the Guardianinterview below:

“When you have millions of followers and millions of listeners, you’ve got some point expecting there to be some sort of monetization there. We hear that loud and clear.”

What are those experiments in the US? “We have a bunch of different products that we’ve been testing with brands: we’re doing native-type advertising things, and we’re building a couple of other things as well,” he said.

“I can’t talk a lot in detail about it, it hasn’t rolled out at any bigger scale yet, but we are looking to create a user experience that’s very elegant, frictionless, open and also has an element of monetization.”

Since its launch in 2008, SoundCloud has become the second biggest streaming service in the world (after YouTube). Should SoundCloud start paying artists? Would you be willing to deal with advertisements on your streams? Let us know your thoughts.